Top coaches tell how to get in your best shape for fall cross country

It’s the middle of June, you’ve finished outdoor track, and are in the best shape of your life. A summer of warm, sunny days, devoid of school and unencumbered by homework and extracurriculars, stretches out endlessly in front of you. There’s no better time than now to spend training, and training, and training . . .

But wait. Think for a second — you’ve been running in speedy circles all spring, and most likely spent your fall charging up wooded hills and racking up enough racing mileage to send you across Australia and back. It’s great that you are now raring to go, but if you’d rather be out kicking up dust with the team this coming fall than jogging with a stress fracture alone in the pool, the best thing to do would be to take a little break, NOW, right?

Coaches Kevin Hanson of Stevenson High School in Stevenson, Michigan, Gary Droze of the Maclay School in Tallahassee, Florida, and Bob Latham of Bend High School in Bend, Oregon, agree that two weeks of active rest is mandatory for year-long runners. By active rest, they mean somewhere between spending all day in bed and punishing a stationary bike 40 to 60 minutes. Walk the dog, play soccer with your little sister or spend a few hours swimming at the lake (swimming, not sunbathing).

Don’t worry about "falling out of shape" — the body retains its conditioning for up to three weeks, and you will find your running batteries recharged and your inner flame rekindled, ready for the onslaught of cross country preparation.

Coach and author Jack Daniels warns about taking too much rest, however, saying, "It’s always kind of bothered me that high school kids tell me, ‘My coach told me it would be a good idea to take the summer off and be well rested.’ Maybe if you’ve had a long track season and gone all the way to your state championship you might need a break, but only a week or two."

Mileage

Hanson and Droze recommend runners work on covering 25 miles per week for the first two weeks back, which equates to about five days of running for 40 minutes each. Then increase your mileage 10 percent each week, so that you are comfortable running 35 to 40 miles a week by August.

Daniels recommends a staggered approach to increasing your volume. "I think you should change your mileage every three weeks," he says. "Hold it steady, then move it up." These more substantial jumps — around a 7 to 10 mile increase in weekly mileage — provide more of a training stimulus than smaller, incremental increases. To gauge your increases Daniels recommends, "A good rule of thumb is one mile for every time you run in a week. So someone who’s running every day will go up by seven, someone who’s doing doubles three times a week will go up 10, and someone who’s running less often will have less of an increase."

Overall, Daniels says, "You don’t need to get hung up on mileage. For high school kids there’s a tremendous number who only run 30 miles a week and do very well. I had a girl come off a background like that and win a national championship as a freshman."

In contrast, coach Brad Hudson, who ran himself from a self-described "fat kid" to state champion by doing 100- to 140-mile weeks, says, "I do think kids have to run a lot." He recognizes that much depends on the individual, but says, "I don’t think it is unreasonable to be running 80 to 90 miles per week by your senior year, provided that you start at 40 to 50 and that you be smart and take the time to get there."

Being smart involves knowing yourself, knowing when you are pushing it and getting overtired and prone to injury. But don’t confuse laziness with burnout: Honestly assess whether it’s your legs that are worn out or your motivation. Mix things up with some speed work or a road 5K and see if your drive doesn’t return.

Hills, Speed

Hanson avoids structured workouts for most of the beginning of the summer, but recommends that runners find hilly routes that offer sporadic opportunities to incorporate running up hills, rather than setting aside a hill workout with repeated surges. This teaches you to naturally respond to a hill when one pops up in a race, rather than make the novice error of charging at it. Hudson thinks natural hills are great too, but adds short, fast hill repeats a couple of times per week — 10 seconds all-out with full recovery, starting with one and working up to 20 — to build pure, explosive strength.

Hanson also advises that kids run with partners if at all possible, so that runs become somewhat fartlek in nature, but without too much competitive structure. He recommends that two days a week, runners fit their entire mileage onto a grass field or trail in order to prepare their legs for the switch from the smooth spring track to the rough, uneven ground of cross country. Overall, his approach is a laid-back one, allowing the runners to relax and enjoy the feeling of running free and fast.

Hudson agrees with this approach. "Keep it fun," he says, recommending doing fartleks, progressions, mixed variations of repeats one to two times per week to learn to run hard without the duress of structured training. "Have the freedom to make stuff up," he advises.

Droze, however, as well as Latham, structure a weekly workout routine. Both coaches agree on the importance of a long run from 60 to 80 minutes. A weekly tempo effort is also good: Run out to a point in 20 minutes, and pick it up on the way back for a returning time of 17 or 18 minutes, or find a roughly 2-mile loop and try to run the second loop faster than the first.

Latham also likes hill workouts, because he finds they really build strength of body and mind, whereas Droze opts for a day at the track to keep leg turnover fresh. He’ll have his kids jog a few miles, then come back to the track for 8 to 12 x 200m at mile race pace with equivalent rest. For example, if you plan to be in shape for a 6-minute mile effort during the cross country season, run your 200s in 45 and jog a 100 in 45.

Daniels also recommends 200s or 400s every fifth or sixth day at current mile race pace, noting, "At that time of the year it’s going to be a good deal slower than your PR." He suggests doing a minimum of 1 to 1.5 miles of reps, up to 2 to 2.5, with the total no more than 5 percent of weekly mileage.

In between long run days, tempo days, and hill or leg turnover days, try to just run easy on trails. A good way to judge your effort is on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 10 being "biting toenails" as Hanson puts it, and a 5 being a conversational pace. Easy days should never drift over a 5. Tempo days should be a 7 to 8 effort pace, approaching 5K race pace. But at no time in the summer should you feel yourself working so hard that you NEED a day off or a recovery day.

Racing

Latham frowns upon racing over the summer, but Droze, Hanson and Daniels welcome road races as both exciting social events and motivation for their runners. Hanson requires his runners to pick two races to do over the summer, one each in July and August, which ultimately serve as tempo efforts. Droze emphasizes that there should be no pressure to PR, but agrees with Hanson that these races do serve as a way to keep kids motivated through the haze and laze of the summer days.

Camp

If your friends are gone all summer and you are aching to run with some companions your own age, by all means, sign up for a running camp. But don’t expect the camp to get you in amazing shape in one week. Most camps try to cram a lot of running into five days, and if you go into one too zealously without proper buildup, you may find yourself broken by midweek. Don’t let the goals and peer pressure of a camp get in the way of your consistent training plan.

Family Vacation

Finally, if you are going to be away over the summer, far from the beaten trails and familiar friends, don’t despair: There’s no better way to tour a city or see the landscape than by running through it. No matter where you are or who you are running with, the summer is a great time to explore different aspects of the sport without the pressure of competition or workouts.